What is the Dvorak Keyboard?

Dvorak is an alternative keyboard layout patented in 1936 by August Dvorak and his brother-in-law William Dealey. They designed their new layout to increase typing speed and to reduce the number of typing errors vs. the standard QWERTY keyboard.

Used by the world's fastest typists, the Dvorak keyboard, sometimes called the American Simplified Keyboard, is ergonomically designed for optimal typing speeds. This is done in two ways:

• The "home row" (the middle row of the keyboard) contains the most frequently used letters.
• The most common pairs of letters are placed on different sides of the keyboard so they are typed by alternating between hands

Why use the Dvorak Keyboard?

The biggest benefit of the arrangement of keys on a Dvorak keyboard is that your fingers don't need to travel as far. Without moving your fingers from the home row, you can type about 5,000 words using the Dvorak keyboard — a huge leap forward from the approximately 500 words you can type using the QWERTY keyboard's home row. And Dvorak himself estimated that in his day, a typical typist's fingers would travel 18-20 miles using a QWERTY keyboard, but only 1 mile if she typed the same text on a Dvorak keyboard!

Master the Dvorak keyboard with Mavis Beacon!

With the Academic Edition, you have the option to learn to use the Dvorak keyboard, and then master your typing skills with lessons, exercises and tests all specially designed for the Dvorak layout. You can even play any of the 17 Mavis Beacon typing games using Dvorak instead of QWERTY!

Notable Dvorak Users